Virgin Media Community

[sarahlizz1999]

Hi I am disabled and tried to get a dropped kerb installed to find that virgin have installed cables way too shallow, not to council building regulations therefore my dropped kerb installation can't go forward. The groundwork company who are doing my kerb are taking this up with my local council and have said that they frequently find that Virgin cable installs are not to regs and they've had enough of it and want them to sort it out. They have had numerous issues where they've had to say they can't actually do the dropped kerb due to Virgin incorrectly laying the cables too shallow. I need this rectified urgently. This is a very big issue for me as I have MS and need wheelchair access.

[nodrogd]

I have to say the vast majority of cable builds took place on the early 1990s long before Virgin Media existed. The original cable franchises were taken by numerous companies who built these networks on a shoestring budget with cheap labour. The result is that some build standards were better than others.

A lot of these companies either went bust, some halfway through network build, or were taken over as they were becoming unsustainable. So Virgin is not responsible for the state of these builds as they had nothing to do with them in the first place.

[sarahlizz1999]

Our cables have only very recently been laid, so that doesn't really fit. But thanks for your reply. Our area which is in rural county Durham have only been added to the network in the last year or so.

[Roger_Gooner]

If you are referring to a VM duct it is installed according to standards which allow all utility suppliers such as electric, gas, water and telephone to get their pipes and cables underneath the same footpath. There is a minimum distance below the surface which the duct is installed, and if this distance happens to be less and prevents a kerb drop then you are out of luck as VM is very unlikely to relocate it.

[Client62]

We don't have pictures of the existing situation, so if we assume that now there are kerb stones to pavement level.

The dropped kerb stones are smaller at the top, the element that extends below road level can remain the same.

This gives the impression that those fitting the dropped kerb stones have turned up with a product that is the wrong dimensions.